Coffee Flour Is a Gluten-Free, Nutrient-Rich Alternative

It might look kind of like instant coffee, but it's really much more than that.

Hearing the words coffee flour might immediately make you think of some caffeinated food gimmick, but the new product is about sustainability and health more than providing a java jolt to your favorite pastry recipes. According to BusinessWeek, the flour has a relatively negligible amount of caffeine in it and actually is five times more fibrous than whole wheat flours, while being completely gluten-free. Made from coffee cherries, the fruit that encases the beans that we commonly roast to make our morning joe, one former Starbucks employee has found a way to transform the fruit into flour, rather than just throwing it away.

With more protein than kale, more iron than spinach, and more potassium than bananas, it seems like Coffee Flour is the way to go. It even sustains coffee effects more subtly and longer than its drinkable counterpart and is less fattening than coconut flour, a common gluten-free flour substitute.

According to BusinessWeek, Dan Belliveau had the idea to begin manufacturing flour from coffee cherries while working at Starbucks. He realized that the cherry pulp was often discarded in the process of extracting beans to roast for coffee. Rather than getting rid of the cherries, Belliveau believes coffee makers now can expend 25% more energy, while making 30 to 50% more in profits and not wasting those coffee cherries.

But does it taste like coffee? According to Belliveau, it has more of a "sweet, dried fruit flavor" than a coffee flavor, which makes sense because it's being produced from the cherries, rather than roasted beans.